October 23, 2016

How to be certain if they are police?

When heavily armed people with faces covered barge into civilians having dinner and order them “don’t move, police”, how are the civilians to be certain that the masked people are indeed the police and not criminals? Only months ago ISIS had thrown a hand grenade into a restaurant.

Is there some law of nature that will disable all the civilians from any movement upon hearing a “don’t move” order if it is from the genuine police? IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar ’s statement “I think you all know that if you do no wrong, you will not run” is presumption to say the least. Are the police not taught basic human psychology?

Different people will react differently to the same situation or stimuli. Doesn’t Khalid know this?

Those who don’t bolt upon seeing the menacing, masked, armed men who shout “don’t move”, more likely than not just freeze because of the sudden shock. They don’t run not because they are sure the masked men are the real police and they have nothing to fear as they have done no wrong.

Is it the strategy of our police to use balaclavas to cause a shock effect to suddenly disorientate people so they will freeze? In temperate countries balaclavas are used to keep the cold out.

But not everyone may be shocked to become immobile for a while. It is just like how different people react upon seeing a bloodied person. Some are known to faint upon the mere sight of blood, some will scream, some are not affected at all and some may go to his assistance even if their hands and clothes get bloodied.

The doctor was certainly not psychologically shocked into freezing. He was very alert and reflex action took over to order his legs to run for safety, and he spontaneously responded. Is that proof that he must have run because he was guilty of some criminal activity?

Why is it wrong for the doctor to have assumed that the armed and masked people without any identifiable police markings, were criminals? For all intents and purposes, the doctor must have believed he was running for safety from criminals.

It is therefore uncalled for of the IGP to defend his men saying rudely that the doctor was arrested because he had run “lintang pukang”. When you run from armed men, you don’t run in a straight line and become easy target, but run in a zig-zag manner. Are the police not trained to run the same “lintang pukang” way if the need ever arises to run for their lives from armed people?

Is Khalid telling Malaysians that only the police wear balaclavas, carry weapons and give orders “don’t move”? Haven’t criminals done the very same things, i.e. imitate police in dressing, carrying weapons real or fake and carrying out their own “raids” by shouting “don’t move”?

Yes, Kahlid, your men shouted “don’t move, police”, but is that irrefutable proof that those men were your police and not criminals out committing some crime? How were the public to know their identities for sure? You need to resolve this issue. The public must be able to distinguish clearly between the real police and criminals masquerading as the police before you can blame the public for not obeying police orders.

When a senior doctor intervened and informed those wrestling with the “doctor” that he was indeed a doctor at the hospital, the police should have immediately stopped manhandling him, taken off their masks and asked to be shown proof by the hospital. The police did not care to verify his identity on the spot. This could have been done easily and positively by looking at the organisation chart.

Even if any benefit of the doubt could be given to the police in the first part of the drama, i.e. the chase and overpowering of the doctor, the second part after the intervention of the senior doctor is totally unacceptable. It smacks of arrogance and show of “might is right”.

This incident was posted by the EAIC on its website. It should have by now started its own probe, and should conclude it quickly. The one important question to determine is whether when the masked, armed men ran into the dining area and shouted “don’t move, police”, the public could have known for sure they were indeed the police and not criminals out to commit a crime there. So was the doctor running away from the police or from what he perceived were criminals?

If he perceived the “intruders” to be criminals, why was he wrong to do so?